Jack and the Beanstalk

In class this past week, I thought about the story of Jack and the Beanstalk when we were discussing the people building a tower up to heaven. Although the stories do not directly relate, I have tried to put the two together. First of all, there is the obvious similarity that the two "towers" went up to heaven. Hashem and the Ogre, who lived in heaven, are similar in the sense that they both were upset with Jack, or the people for doing what they did. Jack tried to steal golden eggs, and he got away with it, but the Ogre was not happy. And, in the end, he had to cut the beanstalk down because the Ogre caught him running away with his gold. The people of this generation wanted to show their authority, which was going against everything that Hashem told them to do. They built a tower that they believed would reach heaven, but they were very wrong. Their attempt only led to punishment because they disrespected the natural hierarchy that Hashem put in place. In Jack's case, the Ogre followed him down the Beanstalk, so he had to cut it down. In the case of the people and the tower, they were unable to complete their mission and Hashem punished them by mixing up their languages so that they could not understand each other. In a way, Hashem was helping them by scattering them throughout the land in order to help them repopulate the world. It seems that both of these stories end well. Jack cuts down the Beanstalk and is successful in killing the Ogre, and in our case, Hashem helps the people spread out. Even though they could no longer understand each other, Hashem helped push them in the right direction instead of destroying them again.